


The White Kiss

by Valkiriana



Category: ONEUS (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fae, Fae & Fairies, Light Angst, M/M, Magic, Mentions of Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-29
Updated: 2020-12-29
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:27:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28394613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Valkiriana/pseuds/Valkiriana
Summary: Geonhak, a creature of summer, leaves his kingdom in a quest to find the child born of winter, prince of the fae and the only being in the four realms who can save his people from doom.
Relationships: Kim Geonhak | Leedo/Lee Seoho
Comments: 4
Kudos: 38





	The White Kiss

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cellywelly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cellywelly/gifts).



> HAPPY BIRTHDAY CEL <3 ily I hope you enjoy this. 
> 
> Warning! for a close death call in this, its all well but don't read if you think it may trigger you pls <3

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Geonhak’s breath comes out in short, huffed exhales that he can barely feel with the icy strikes of wind- its strength is unlike anything Geonhak has ever experienced, and it hits him with a punishing determination fit for the wrath of a god.

 _You do not belong here_ , it seems to claim, as though it wished to drag him back to his realm, defeated, broken and empty handed.  
  
The cold, It’s unlike anything Geonhak could have ever imagined- and the furs he wears are nothing but futile against the lawless mountain and its ungovernable weather that seem set on defeating him.  
  
It felt invigorating at first, merely reaffirming Geonhak’s conviction to succeed in his quest, to bring his people the long awaited relief after so many moons of hunger and suffering. But the closer, the new heights Geonhak reached in the mountain, the more unbearable it became for the young warrior- until the ferocious weather had reduced him to a gasping, trembling weakling that put all his years of service to shame.  
  
Yet Geonhak doesn't have it to hate himself for his impending failure. Because should he die, Geonhak knows he would be forgiven- if only for the bravery he's shown all his life, the bravery of going straight to his death, for the smallest chance to bring water, food back to his people.  
  
Because Geonhak was born in the cocooning embrace of blooming heat- heat that was so strong, so ardent, it offered life as fast as it took it back, withering crops cruelly, reviving them back on a tender whim. Geonhak was born out of bright, sizzling light, the never ending warmth of clear skies and the gentle strokes of sweet summer air that could burn on the hottest of days too, and with hellish resolve.  
  
But Geonhak didn’t care about the scorching heat, he wasn’t one to complain about the sticky kisses it left all over his skin, the heavy weight of humidity that felt as though he breathed water instead of air. After all, Geonhak didn’t know better- or worse- and his blood, it ran hotter than any heat the sun could provide.  
  
But here, at the top of the mountain, there’s no heat. There’s no life to kill, nothing to revive in this white, sunless dessert. Breathing is pain, and air feels like an enemy. Air that's more like ice glass shattering against his throat and lungs, and sends shocks all throughout his raw tender skin. He feels it, the cold, seeping under his clothing, invading his body as though he were drowning in ice cold water, while the violent tremors that attack his body are but a waste of precious energy that cannot even keep him warm anymore.  
  
His legs, strong, young and resistant cannot even withstand his weight anymore, trembling and exhausted, threatening to betray him with every step. All the warmth he has soaked in his entire life freezes to nothing as Geonhak trips over his own feet and falls, helplessly, against the foreign texture of white snow that seems to welcome him now. It cushions his fall almost sweetly, as though it were a last act of mercy before he succumbs to a deathly, cold sleep.  
  
Geonhak is so very tired, and lying as he is, the furs protect him from the wind and he could swear he feels almost warm like this. It makes him drowsy, darkness skittering around the corners of his vision and he can barely fight it anymore. So with great sadness, he closes his eyes and lets out a ragged breath of defeat.  
  
_You did well,_ a voice tells him inside. _You did your best._ _  
_ _  
_ Thoughts pass by his head and he can’t fully concentrate on any of them, unawarely clenching his fist against the snow as he tries his best not to fall into the irresistible darkness. Not yet. Not so fast. Please  
  
Geonhak barely feels it when there’s movement near him, the faint sound of rustling underneath the roar of the frigid wind- _an animal,_ perhaps, looking for easy food.  
  
There’s a sound- a foreign grunt that comes from his own chest and he realizes, belatedly, that he’s been turned around, on his back, once the air gets knocked out of him.  
  
“ _Well, well, what do we have here_ .” Something- it reaches him, a distorted, echoing voice. _Is it real?_  
  
Words don't seem to make sense to him anymore as Geonhak struggles to breathe in the new position. And yet they resound in his head, over and over again, like a dying echo.   
  
“What is a human doing here out of all things, mh?” There’s a soft caress that reaches Geonhak’s cheek and he gasps, body revived with a violent shiver that strikes him like a lightning bolt. It feels as though the stroke were colder than anything he’s felt so far, agonizingly so- to the point Geonhak thinks it has frozen his very soul. “ _No_ , stay with me, don’t sleep. You will die if you do.”  
  
In a decaying moment of brightness Geonhak understands that this is not a desperate product of his struggling mind, but that there’s indeed someone next to him- someone who touches and speaks to him. And though his words are uttered with cruel apathy, Geonhak can hear them clearly, the stranger’s voice rising above the deafening sound of the restless wind around them, as if by magic.  
  
“The prince- I- I need to see the prince.” Geonhak manages to utter through his stuck, frozen throat, and if it isn’t his last breath, it might as well be close to one.  
  
There’s a sound, as ugly as it is enticing, and Geonhak thinks it can only be called a laugh. But there's something unnatural about it, upsettingly so, something that would urge him to run away, if only he could.   
  
“Whatever makes you think you’re worthy of meeting the prince?” It doesn’t feel as though an answer were required despite the questioning tone in which the stranger speaks, and so, battling with his dormant body as he is, Geonhak provides none.  
  
“Please.” Geonhak whispers instead- begs in a soundless little breath that for some miraculous reason reaches the stranger nonetheless. "I need- need to save them-" He wheezes, hopes he utters the words correctly.   
  
A blazingly cold palm rests on his forehead, and his body doesn’t even have the strength to recoil from it anymore, as the most painful wave of cold fear runs through him and kills him a little.  
  
“ _Geonhak_ .” The stranger speaks after a moment, and it commands him to open his eyes, as if beckoned back to life for a moment by the power of his name.  
  
It’s magic.  
  
Geonhak understands it once he finds himself staring into an abyss of icy blue eyes- eyes that pierce him in place, under their mesmerizing power of their beauty. It’s unlike anything Geonhak’s ever seen, and he thinks that if he is to die, at least experiencing this incomparable sort of otherworldly beauty will make it worth it.  
  
The beauty of a fae.  
  
“Now listen to me very carefully, human, you do not have much time.” Geonhak struggles to move, but something pins him in place, presses against his chest, as if it were a threat- his life is in this creature’s hands, and he certainly hopes he will have mercy on him.  
  
_Do you wish to live, Geonhak?_ _  
_  
The stranger speaks, but his lips don't move until later, as though the sound were lagging, as though the words were only inside of his head- and in an urgent moment Geonhak realizes that the words that reach his ears indeed do not make sense to him- for they belong to another language.  
  
There are two voices- and Geonhak understands him in his mind, only because the fae wishes it so.  
  
“Yes, please, I must-”  
  
“Hush now.” The stranger commands, eyes hardening as Geonhak’s eyes roll to the back of his head, grunting through the great effort to open them back again. “Then I’ll save you, but if I do, I shall have something of yours in return.”  
  
“Please- anything- name your price” His voice is but a whisper, pitiful and imploring-  
  
_Your name, Geonhak. That’s all I want._ _  
_  
It’s a dangerous thing, to give one’s name to a fae and Geonhak knows, albeit unaware of exactly what dangers await him. Would he belong to him as well? Would this bind him in service? Would he stop being the man that he is- would his soul still belong to him? Yet it doesn’t seem as though he has much of a choice, trapped between life and death as he is.  
  
In the end, Geonhak chooses life- because he has a quest, and he shall finish it, whatever it takes.  
  
Geonhak can only croak out a little noise that conveys his agreement, when the fae’s hands settle over his heart, so cold that it seeps through his clothes and reaches his very heart- like a frozen void whose only purpose is to take away any left over warmth Geonhak might have.  
  
“Then tell me your name. You must say it yourself, willingly- tell me.”   
  
_Tell me your name, say it for me._  
  
Geonhak manage to speak with great difficulty, speaks through the most tortuous pain he’s ever experienced- and seals his fate with it.  
  
  
“G- Geonhak.”  
  
  
Crystallized air leaves his body in a breath that sends ice running through his veins, eyes fluttering shut as the stranger leans over him and he abandons himself to his destiny. Geonhak, once a mighty warrior, now defeated by a magnificent mountain that won’t let itself be conquered by any man or woman, surrenders his life willingly.  
  
Geonhak dives into darkness with faithful resolve, and allows his heart to be claimed by winter.  
  
_Come back to me, Geonhak, you owe me your name._  
  
So when lips as soft and cold as snow press against his in a frozen, white kiss that feels like death itself- Geonhak resurfaces into life instead with a ragged breath that’s yanked from him brutally, and stares into icy blue eyes that engrave themselves in his memory forever.

They’re eyes that contain a wilderness that rivals the mountain’s, as though they were the very soul of winter itself- Geonhak cannot help but be lost in them, mesmerized by a kind of depth that sucks him in as if he were drowning. And it certainly feels like it, he thinks, somewhere amidst the storm of crazed thoughts that wreak havoc inside his head. His arms flail around as he gasps for air, lungs burning with effort, coughing out what feels like all the coldness that overtook his body, little by little purging himself from it.  
  
The stranger, whose milky white skin is so translucent it seems to blend into the white air, observes him with an eerie, quiet type of solemnity. It sends frantic, des[erate energy all over his body and _he needs to leave, he needs to get away-_ _  
_ _  
_ But he can’t. Geonhak's pinned in place by forces beyond his comprehension, air that weighs down on him, the snow that has lost all its coldness now and pulls him back down again, unable to get himself free-  
  
“Don’t try to fight it, human. You won’t get far, you still need my help.” The unnatural voice of the fae has somehow mellowed down into a sweet, soothing tone- and Geonhak stops his struggling for a second, swallowing as he realizes with a dreadful feeling in the pit of his stomach, that he can now understand the ethereal creature when he speaks.  
  
The wind has stopped, the unforgiving strikes dying down to nothing and he can perfectly hear him now, see him- _  
_ _  
_ “What- Who are you?” Geonhak gasps, as he resumes his weak, pointless tugging at the inexistent chains that bind him. He feels frantically vulnerable, uncomfortably weak, and his mind is too disoriented to properly think. The fae stays by his side with an imposing kind of elegance that shouldn’t intimidate Geonhak as much as it does-and yet, something in him finds his presence soothing, pulses inside of him to get closer to it.  
  
“You claimed you wished to speak to the prince, did you not?” The fae speaks, regal and disdainful, his persuasive voice bewitching Geonhak into relaxing for him, engulfed in this mystical aura that feels all too alluring to fight anymore. The majestic, beautiful creature leans back in again, agitating in Geonhak a kind of eagerness that is most unlike him. Lips that feel close to lukewarm now press against his ear, enticing a little helpless breath from him as he stares up into the clouded sky. And then, he speaks, each and every word echoing through his whole body, leaving pleasant white heat tingling under his skin.  
  
“Ease your mind now, Geonhak, you’ve found him. I’m Seoho, prince of winter and protector of this mountain, and now, owner of your name. Sleep now, Geonhak, close your eyes for me.”  
  
So Geonhak does, succumbs into the sweetest, most peaceful slumber, induced by words carried by magic. Words that replay in his dreamless rest, until he’s healed in body and mind.   
  
  
  
.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!   
> If you liked this, pls let me know in the comments<3
> 
> Also, you can come talk to me on twitter (@olisforest)


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